Welcome to Last Night’s Numbers, a new daily feature where we run through the NBA games from the night before, highlighting one or two numbers I found particularly interesting from each game. Think of it as Kelly Dwyer’s Behind the Box Score from Ball Don’t Lie, except shorter, less informative, less informed, less witty, less enjoyable and less well written. All the stats are from Hoopdata’s box scores, which contain some additional advanced stats not available in traditional box scores. As with all my work here, this is an experiment and subject to changes in format and scheduling!

Boston 105 – New York 101

The Celtics pounded New York on the glass, grabbing 58.6% of the available rebounds and posting an Offensive Rebound Rate of 32.5%. This was a team effort with six different Celtics grabbing at least two offensive rebounds.

Turnovers were a problem in the Celtics’ first two games, but they kept them under control last night only turning the ball over on 14.9% of their possessions. There is obviously still room for improvement there.

Rookie shooting guard Landry Fields had another solid performance scoring 11 points and chipping in 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal for New York. Unfortunately, all that effort amounted to -10 for the Knicks.

New Orleans 101 – Denver 95

New Orleans did a great job moving the ball and finding open shooters, recording an assist on 60.6% of their field goals. Chris Paul was chief among the Hornets in this respect recording an assist rate of 29.6. However, Wille Green, Jerryd Bayless and Trevor Arize all had assist rates above 24.0.

Carmelo Anthony had another well rounded game for Denver. In his first game Melo gave the Nuggets 8 points in the paint and 9 free throw attempts to go with only 3 16-23ft. jumpers. Last night Melo had only 6 points in the paint, 4 free throw attempts and 9 16-23ft. jumpers. He made 6 of 9 on his long jumpers but this is a troubling pattern of shot selection for the Nuggets from a long term perspective.

Memphis 91 – Dallas 90

Memphis did a great job protecting the ball, turning it over on only 12% of their possessions. They needed every one of those possessions to pull out the win as they only shot 38.8% for the game.

Dirk Nowitzki had another incredibly efficient game scoring 27 points on a 76.5% TS%.

Oklahoma City 105 – Detroit 104

The Thunder stole this game at the free thow line, with 44 attempts and a FTR of 0.518. In terms of points scored at the free throw line, they had a 21 point advantage over Detroit in this game (37-16).

Kevin Durant took an absurd 13 jumpers from the 16-23ft. range making 8 of them. He maintained a balance though, also attempting 13 free throws.

Ben Gordon had it going for the Pistons, scoring 32 points on an 80.2% TS%.

Miami 96 – Orlando 70

I hate to point fingers, but I’m pointing a giant foam one at Rashard Lewis today. 0-9 from the field, a 6.3% Total Rebound Rate and a -26 in his 25 minutes on the floor. Yikes!

Miami did not play a terrific offensive game, only posting a 105.5 Offensive Rating. They did however dominate the glass, grabbing 56% of available rebounds; protect the ball, turning it over on only 11.5% of their possessions; and control the game on defense, giving up only 7 shots at the rim to Orlando and holding them to 30.5% from the field.

Minnesota 95 – Milwaukee 86

Minnesota won this game, largely by crashing the boards. They posted a 40.0% Offensive Rebound Rate, with 9 different players grabbing at least one offensive rebound. This helped overcome a terrible shooting night, as the team shot only 37.7% from the field.

Corey Maggette gave himself the green light last night, taking 11 jumpers from 16ft. and out, making only 3 of them. Well done sir! This was indicative of a team wide problem with 30% of their shots last night being jumpshots from 16-23ft.

Minnesota had 11 blocks as a team last night. This works out to blocking 12.6% of Milwaukee’s shots. Seems like shot selection was an overall issue for the Bucks.

New Jersey 106 – Sacramento 100

New Jersey shot 52.5% from the field, posted a tremendous FTR of 0.767, and dominated the glass grabbing 58.1% of the available rebounds. It’s a good thing, because they also racked up 26 turnovers which worked out to 24.4% of their possessions.

Carl Landry took 9 shots outside of 10ft. last night and only 4 inside of 10ft. It worked out okay as he combined to go 7 of 13, but that’s not a sustainable level of efficiency for him on that type of shot distribution. It’s also probably why he didn’t attempt a single free throw.

Beno Udrih and Omri Casspi combined to miss all 10 of their three point attempts for the Kings. That’s like Josh Smith bad.

Atlanta 104 – Philadelphia 101

Atlanta struggled with turnovers, giving up the ball on 19.4% of their possessions. However, their ball movement was much more effective tonight, totalling 24 assists. This means 66.7% of their baskets were assisted on. In addition, their assists were particularly efficient with 14 of them leading to either a layup or a three pointer.

Andre Iguodala had a terrific game for the Sixers, scoring 27 points while chalking up 6 rebounds and 10 assists. He had a fairly efficient shot distribution making 4 of 5 at the rim, 2 of 5 three pointers, and 3 of 7 from 16-23ft.

As a team, 33% of Philadelphia’s shots were 16-23ft. jumpers. They shot 6 of 28 from this distance. For a team without strong shooters, they need to find a way to diversify their offense.

L.A. Lakers 114 – Phoenix 106

The Lakers shot the ball extremely well against Phoenix, making 12 of 27 three pointers. Pau Gasol did a great job kicking the ball out to open shooters, with 4 assists that led to three pointers.

Robin Lopez had a great game for Phoenix, scoring 18 points on 50% shooting and grabbing 14 rebounds. Despite taking 10 shots at the rim, Lopez didn’t attempt a single free throw. Finding a way to initiate and then finish through contact could be a way for Lopez and the Suns to wear down the Lakers’ potent front line in the future.

Toronto 101 – Cleveland 81

Cleveland’s problem tonight was poor shooting. 31% of their shots came at the rim, compared to only 14% on 16-23ft. jumpers, a very solid distribution. The problem was they struggled to make either, making only 12 of 26 at the rim and 1 of 12 on those long jumpers. If they had shot last year’s league average from both distances they would have picked up roughly 16 extra points, enough to keep them in the game.

Toronto did a great job of rebounding, grabbing 58.2% of available boards. Reggie Evans was especially valuable grabbing 14 rebounds, 5 of them offensive. Evans was a +20 for his time on the floor.

Toronto shot a terrific 10-20 on 16-23ft. jumpers. In the future it would be nice to see them settle for that shot less, often as maintaining that percentage is probably not sustainable for them long term.

Indiana 104 – Charlotte 101

Danny Granger was the man for Indiana tonight, scoring 33 points on a 66.6% TS%.

Tyler Hansbrough was key down the stretch for Indiana, posting a +12 in his 20 minutes on the floor.

Charlotte completely controlled the glass, grabbing 56.9% of available rebounds. They also posted a terrific 0.643 FTR. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get stops when they needed them, only turning the Pacers over on 10% of their possessions and allowing them to shoot 45% from the field and 41.9% on three pointers.

2 responses to “Last Night’s Numbers – 10/30/10”

What’s the matter, you don’t like the term “sh*t shot”? It does roll off the tongue better than “16-23ft. jumpers,” but I can understand why you shy away from it.

At any rate, it’s an interesting stat to follow. I wish it were a little easier to look it up. without doing calculations. But hey, I shouldn’t complain. The internet now offers a wealth of stats, and it’s only getting better.